TEQ Capital: How Frank Thelen’s Tech Funds Have Performed

In 2021, serial entrepreneur Frank Thelen founded 10xDNA Capital Partners GmbH. The Bonn-based asset manager creates equity funds and ETFs aimed at both private and institutional investors. In 2024, the company was rebranded to TEQ Capital.

The fund family

TEQ Capital currently runs four actively managed equity funds:

• TEQ – Disruptive Technologies (WKN DNA10X, launched September 2021)
• TEQ – Disruptive Technologies Institutional (WKN DNA10W, launched November 2021)
• TEQ – Small & Mid Cap Technologies (WKN DNA10M, launched February 2023)
• TEQ – Clean Technologies (WKN DNA10C, launched March 2024)

In December 2023, TEQ Capital partnered with Geneve Invest to launch the bond fund Tell’s Arrow. In January 2026, the firm released its first exchange-traded fund — the TEQ General Artificial Intelligence UCITS ETF (ISIN LU3098954871), aimed primarily at retail investors.

A painful start for early investors

The launch of the actively managed funds was a deep disappointment for early investors, who saw drawdowns of up to -51 %. In calendar year 2022 alone, the flagship Disruptive Technologies fund (retail share class) lost -51.7 %. The largest holding at inception, Palantir Technologies, ran from around $21 at the fund’s launch to a high of $184 — but not every position performed so strongly, and the fund lagged the U.S. tech benchmark Nasdaq by a wide margin in the early years.

Strong outperformance over the past two years

The picture has changed significantly since 2024. Over the past two years, the TEQ funds have clearly outperformed broad technology benchmarks such as the Nasdaq 100 (tracked by the popular QQQ ETF in the U.S. and EQQQ / iShares Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF in Europe). The Disruptive Technologies fund posted a 3-year return of roughly +76 %, with calendar-year gains of +33.3 % in 2023 and +29.2 % in 2024, while QQQ delivered around 54.8 % in 2023 and 25.6 % in 2024 — meaning the TEQ fund has substantially outpaced the index since its 2022 trough.

Performance as of May 2026

As of May 2026, all four equity funds and the new AI ETF are in positive territory since their respective launches. The table below shows the cumulative performance of the retail share classes (the ones accessible to private investors) since inception, over three years and over one year. The Disruptive Technologies Institutional share class is a separate fund with a EUR 1 million minimum investment, intended for institutional investors only.

Sources: extraETF / wallstreet-online / onvista, mid-May 2026. Performance shown in EUR including distributions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.